[tied] Re: Origin of OE pres. ind. 1st person ending

From: dariusz_piwowarczyk
Message: 41673
Date: 2005-10-31

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> >
> >In the earliest West-Saxon manuscripts, this ending appears
> >as -æ rather than -e. I have seen various explanations for it.
> >For example, -e < -æ < -am is a regular word-final development
> >in Old English.
>
> Where -am ultimately derives from PIE -o:m.
>
> >The use of such a secondary -m ending in the
> >present indicative 1st person is common in other IE languages
> >as well, such as Old Irish, Persian, etc.
>
> Also Slavic.

Thank you for your answers. Is it really so in Slavic? In 'Symbolae
Linguisticae in honorem Georgii Kurylowicz' (Krakow, 1965) Warren
Cowgill writes (article titled 'The OE present indicative ending -e')
that "(...) Vaillant has now convincingly derived the Slavic ending
from *-o:-mi (...), so that there is no evidence whatever outside OE
for PIE *-o:m." (Earlier he writes that Bazell suggests that the OE
and the Slavic 1st person ending -o [with nasalization] derives from
PIE *-o:m)

So, coming back to the OE ending, you're not of the opinion that it
could originate from the subjunctive (IE optative)?